Deseo Que Estuvieras Aquí
by TheBucketWoman
Summary: Slightly late flashfic for juliasfish. A trip to Spain. A prank. Some Dasey. What else do ya need?


Deseo Que Estuvieras Aquí

by TheBucketWoman

Disclaimer: I do not own anything to do with _LWD_ or anything else I may reference herein. No infringement of any kind is intended.

A/N: This is a flashfic for juliasfish. The title was translated from google translator, as was pretty much all of the rest of the Spanish. If I got stuff wrong, well, lo siento. It's been far too long since I took Spanish. I can see my Puerto Rican ancestors rolling their eyes at me, pero what the heck, the Italian ones do, too. Oh, and the prompt shall be at the end. Enjoy!

Part One: Casey

Casey wrestled with the frilly skirt of the one size fits few slipcover as she tried to fit it over the recliner. It was way harder than the directions on the package made it seem, so she waited until her Mom and George left for the airport before she fiddled with it.

_At least it was cheap_, she thought. _Maybe that was the problem._

"Um, Casey?" her little sister, Lizzie asked. "What're you doing?"

"Trying...to...get this stupid thing to fasten," Casey said. She thought she had it, but then the chair tipped, spilling her onto the floor.

"You okay?" Lizzie asked.

"Yeah," Casey said, as she rolled over the back of the thing and got back onto her feet before she righted it. "Did it stay?"

The skirt thingee popped open again.

"I think I saw some safety pins in here," Casey said, opening a drawer in the sideboard.

"Obviously I asked the wrong question," Lizzie said. "I'll try again. Why exactly are you fastening that ugly thing to Derek's chair when he'll be home in like, two hours?"

"Because Derek'll be home in two hours," Casey said, like it was the most obvious thing in the world. Which, she figured, it _was_. Derek had been gone for three weeks, visiting his mother Abby who was doing research for the university of Spain at Valencia. The house had been disturbingly quiet in his absence, but Casey would never willingly admit that.

She had been wracking her brain for the past two and a half weeks trying to think of ways to welcome him back. The prank was the best thing she could come up with, and it was _going_ to work. She was dreaming about the look on his face when he saw that she'd made good on the threat she made all those months ago about recovering his chair and generally erasing all evidence of his existence in the house. At the time, he'd been facing the possibility of six months in Spain, for failing Spanish.

The reaction would only last a second or two, but that was all she needed. Maybe she could even have Edwin videotape it. Recovering her stepbrother's favorite spot in the house with a chintz slipcover that looked like Martha Stewart exploded all over it might just be the best idea she'd ever had.

"And it's not like I had time to redecorate the whole house in the three weeks he's been gone," Casey finished.

"He's gonna get you baaack," Lizzie sang.

"Please," Casey said. "I still owe him from the bookcover incident."

Lizzie snickered.

"Not funny," Casey said. "Imagine if _you_ opened up _The Kama Sutra_ in the middle of your physics class. I wanted to wash my eyes out with soap!"

Lizzie thought it over. "If you think about it, it still kinda works for physics class."

"Lizzie!" Casey said. The idea that she even knew what the _Kama Sutra_ was at her age upset Casey no end.

"What do you know about the _Kama Sutra_?" Casey asked. She felt like hyperventilating. Lizzie wasn't even fourteen yet.

"Relax, Casey," Lizzie said. "Breathe. It's not like I've tried any of the, um, _suggestions_ out or anything. What do you take me for?"

"See that you don't," Casey said. "Until after I'm dead, okay?"

"Sure," Lizzie said. "No problem."

"That doesn't mean you get to kill me," Casey said.

"Nuts," Lizzie said, snapping her fingers.

"We never used to joke around like this," Casey said, wrinkling her nose. "Where is this coming from?"

"You have to ask?" Lizzie asked. This kind of sick humor had Derek's fingerprints all over it. He and Edwin had been trying to corrupt Casey and Lizzie since they moved in almost two years before. It was only a matter of time before Marti, the baby, started showing signs of incurable evil. So far her evil seemed at least a little treatable. By the time she turned ten, the window of redeemability might close.

That reminded her. "Where's Marti?"

"Upstairs," Lizzie said. "Said something about a welcome home lanyard."

"Okay," Casey said. That would keep her busy for a while. And Edwin, she knew, was at his friend Teddy's house where they'd sent him because he had been driving them crazy. He didn't want to admit how much he'd missed Derek either, but he'd been pouncing around like a chihuahua all morning from the anticipation, all the while trying to look cool. No mean feat, so it wasn't surprising that he didn't pull it off.

Originally, they were all supposed to pile into the station wagon to greet him at the airport. Lizzie put the kybosh on that.

"Baaad idea," she'd said. "Big long flight. He's carrying tons of stuff and being all cranky, right? And the first thing he sees is all of us standing there in a clump, grinning at him." She demonstrated, smiling hugely and giving off an air of insanity.

"What's he gonna do?" Lizzie asked. "What would you do if you were him, George?"

"Try to climb back onto the plane," George had said, nodding. "Gotcha."

Personally, Casey wondered if Lizzie just wanted to avoid that long trip to the airport. Casey didn't mind; it gave her more time to clean.

For reasons unbeknownst to her, Casey had been cleaning the house to almost surgical sterility. For _Derek_. Maybe so that he could really enjoy messing it up again, she didn't know.

"Casey!" Lizzie said, after a while, startling her.

"What?"

"Give me that," Lizzie said.

Casey put the bottle she's been spraying the couch with behind her back.

"Give me the _Febreze_, Casey," Lizzie said. She held out her hand for it.

Casey didn't argue this time.

"Sit down," Lizzie said. "In the recliner, though, because the couch is all wet."

She sat. On the very edge of the recliner, so that it threatened to dump her again if she moved wrong.

"Do I have to send you to Emily's?" Lizzie threatened.

"Emily won't even answer her phone," Casey said. "She's afraid I might use the lint roller on her cat again."

"You didn't!"

"No, I didn't," Casey said. "And that was Emily's joke."

"Good one," Lizzie said. "Had _me_ going."

"Are you sure there's nothing else we need to do?" Casey asked.

"Positive," Lizzie said.

"I'm all nervous."

"Really?" Lizzie said. "Hadn't noticed."

Casey gave her the evil eye.

"You do know that it's Derek coming and not the Queen, right?" Lizzie asked. "Or Zac Efron."

"Yeah," Casey said. "I don't know what my problem is."

"You miiiissed him," Lizzie sang.

"Yeah," Casey said, ashamed of herself. "So? You didn't?"

"I did," Lizzie said. "I just don't feel any burning desire to bake pies, wash The Prince, or make the house smell like, what is this, 'spring rain.' It's like everyone in this house has completely lost it."

The phone rang. Lizzie dove for it.

"Mom?"

Casey laughed at her and got a pillow tossed at her head in return.

"Okay," Lizzie said. "Half an hour? I'll call Ed and tell him to come back."

"Oh my God!" Casey mouthed. Lizzie wrinkled her nose and flapped a don't worry type of gesture at her.

Casey ran upstairs to wash the dustbunnies out of her hair.

Part Two: Derek

Nora saw Derek before he had a chance to see her. He heard a telltale "Georgie," and turned around. And there she was, with his father, both of whom pounced on him immediately.

There was a moment of calm, and he had time to say "Oh my G—" before his air was cut off.

"Can't breathe," he wheezed. Though really, he was happy to see them, and both grateful and disappointed that it was only them.

"You got a little tan, look at that," Nora said, completely ignoring the way he gulped in air after they released him. "You wore sunblock right?"

"Oh," Derek said. "_Sure_." It was partially true. He remembered to use the stuff after that first day, the day of the Burn That Will Live in Infamy.

Nora brushed his hair off of his forehead. His Mom had done her fair share of that, too, especially when it had started to lighten from all that sun. She seemed to think that it was cute, but Derek himself was not a fan.

"What?" Derek asked.

"Nothing," Nora said. "Look at you."

"Nora?" Derek asked, a little alarmed.

"Yes, I'm about to get mushy and there's nothing you can do about it," Nora said.

"Dad?"

"It'll probably be over soon," Dad said.

"Promise?" Derek asked.

"You know I can't do that," Dad said.

"Look at you with all that hair!" Nora said, petting him some more. She was really laying it on thick.

"Are you done?" Derek asked, finally.

She thought it over. "Yeah okay," she said. "So, you hungry?"

"Do you need to ask?"

He'd spent the last three weeks eating some of the best food he'd ever had, but somehow, now that he was home, he was jonesing for some good old fashioned North American drive-thru.

"I thought we'd stop for some _paella_," Dad said.

"No!" Derek said.

"Tapas?" Nora asked."Ropa vieja?"

"Nooooo," Derek said.

"Hamburguesas?" Dad asked. "Pappas fritas?"

"Make it stop!" Derek muttered. But then his brain kicked in and translated what his Dad had said. "On second thought, yeah! Hamburguesas! Ahora!"

Part Three: Lizzie.

Edwin announced his return like only he could—by barking laughter and pointing at the ugly slipcover. Lizzie heard him from the kitchen, where she was trying to keep her hands off the cookies her mother baked. Yep, her mother baked cookies. They were the kind from the tube, but still.

When she got to the living room, Edwin had gone from full-on barking to something more like puppy whimpers. He had his mouth covered.

"Casey?" Edwin asked, when he could breathe.

"Who else?" Lizzie asked.

"I think we should get started on her eulogy," Edwin said. "She was a great older sister while she lasted. Hardly ever pinched or kicked me. Tried to get me to eat vegetables and clean under my fingernails."

"Gave me lots of boy advice," Lizzie said. She wiped a tear that wasn't there. "All of it on neatly highlighted index cards. I'll miss her." She threw her arms around Edwin in entirely phony grief and they both collapsed onto the couch, which, thankfully had dried finally.

"Ooh," Edwin said, sniffing. "Spring rain?"

"What are you idiots doing?" Casey asked, from the stairs. She had on eyeshadow. Not the sparkly blue stuff that was a dead giveaway, but a soft gray. Close enough. And she had the little videocamera in her hand. She'd obviously heard Edwin's dramatic entrance, too and grabbed the thing on the way downstairs.

"Practicing,"Lizzie said.

"For what?" Casey asked. "The WWE?"

"Who told?" Edwin asked.

There was a honk from outside, just to give them a little warning. The three of them looked at each other for a second, wide-eyed. Marti came running down the stairs. Casey practically tossed the camera at Edwin, who caught it and opened it up. Casey hopped over the arm of the recliner and settled into it, grabbing the remote and hitting the TV. Her own version of acting natural. Lizzie rolled her eyes. She wasn't much for the pretense. She just stood at the front door with Marti and waited.

And Derek came in from the back door.

"What're you guys doing?" he said from the pocket doors. Everyone jumped.

"Sme-_rek_!" Marti said running to him. He had just enough time to put his bags down before she pounced. He caught her in the air and swung her around. While he did this, their parents came in from the front.

"Miss me?" he said.

"Duh," Marti said.

"How much?"

"A lot," Marti said. "Miss me?"

"Eh," Derek said.

"Sme-_rek_!"

"Tons," he amended. "_Duh_." He kissed her hair and put her down.

"And you," he said pointing at Casey. "Need to get off my—"

He was dumbstruck for about ten seconds as he noticed the chair. From where Lizzie was standing, she could see the viewfinder of Edwin's camera as he zoomed in on Derek's shocked face, right before he started laughing.

"That...has to be the ugliest thing _ever_!" he wheezed. "And the chair's kind of a mess, too!"

"Told you we should've changed the locks," Casey replied, not missing a beat. "Or moved and not told him where."

"Remember," Derek said. "We tried that with you, but you always seem to find your way back."

"Record time," George said.

"You owe me a loony," Mom said. George reached into his pocket and handed her the dollar coin.

Neither Derek, nor Casey noticed the exchange. Casey got up in an attempt to make a dramatic exit and the skirt on the slipcover popped open again, hitting her leg.

"Ow," she said.

"What is this thing on the recliner?" George asked.

Derek cracked up all over again.

Edwin waited for the Derek aftershocks to die down before he asked the question he'd been waiting to ask.

"So? What'd you bring us?"

Lizzie snorted. He just sounded so much like Marti right then.

"What'd I _bring_ you?" Derek asked. "ME!"

"Meh," Edwin said. "I'd rather have a keychain."

"Shoulda gotten you a keychain instead of this, then," Derek said, reaching into his bag and pulling out a small bag.

"Nah, that's okay," Edwin said, grabbing it and pulling out a t-shirt. It had a picture of a tomato on it.

"Tomatina Festival?" Edwin read.

"Yeah," Derek said. "It's next month I think. It's where, like, thousands of people throw tomatoes at each other in the streets."

"Seriously?" Edwin asked. "Cool."

Lizzie rolled her eyes. Edwin didn't need a reason for a good food fight.

"I'm just sorry I didn't get to see it," Derek said. "But what the heck. Maybe we'll go in a couple years."

He gave Marti a lace mantilla, a wallet for George (Derek assured Lizzie that he didn't buy anything leather, though Spain is famous for its leather. She couldn't do anything about his jacket, but she did her best to stop new animal hides from entering the house,), a shawl for Mom, and a fan for Lizzie herself. She couldn't stop flicking it open and shut.

Derek turned to Casey. "And for you," he began.

"Really?" Casey asked.

He handed her his backpack. "My laundry."

Everybody stood there for a minute, waiting for a punchline.

"Right," Casey said. She held the backpack as far away from herself as possible and scampered into the laundry room to put it down. She could have just plain dropped it of course, but she'd just cleaned and didn't want anything on her floor. And it did look kinda dusty.

Mom was about to yell, but Derek cut her off.

"Wait for it..." he said.

"De-_rek_!" Casey yelled from the laundry room.

He giggled. _Giggled_. Like Marti.

She came back in with a little gift bag in her hand, a giant tag with her name on it hung from its handle. It looked for a second like she was about to hit him with it.

"This is full of rubber spiders or something right?"

"Nah, they were out of those," Derek said.

She peeked into the bag like she was afraid of mousetraps. "Aww," she said, completely shocked.

"What?" Lizzie said.

"Lemme see!" Marti said.

He got her a diary, with a cloth cover. Dark blue, with gold. Lizzie guessed that Derek's Mom must have picked it out. There was no way he found it on his own.

"This is really nice," Casey said. "Thank you, Der—"

It almost seemed like the boy went poof. Like Houdini. Until Lizzie spotted him halfway up the stairs.

"So it's been fun, but my bed misses me," Derek said. "Call me when dinner's ready, kay?"

"Weirdo," Casey said, shaking her head after Derek was out of earshot. "How does he even _do_ that?"

"It's a gift," Edwin said.

Part Four: Emily.

Emily Davis was trying to get a jump on her summer reading. Casey's influence. She was nose deep in _Beloved_ (which Casey had finished already) when her phone rang.

"Hello?"

"So I might be reading too much into things, but somehow I don't think I am and I don't know if that means I need to worry or what? I mean I know I fly off the handle once in a while but this time I think that there's some reason to, so I don't know _what_ to think anymore. What do you think?" Casey asked. Olympic swimmers didn't have her lung capacity.

"Hi Casey," Emily said, gratefully putting the book down. This beat the hell out of literature.

There was a pause, then a "What?" from Casey's end.

"Oh, yeah, hi, Em," She took a breath. "So what do you think?"

"I think I came in on this in the middle," Emily said. "Why don't you catch me up?"

"Sorry," Casey said. "I'm weirded out."

"Happens," Emily said.

"Okay, so here's the deal," Casey said. "Derek just got back..."

"Oh yeah? How'd the slipcover thing go over?"

"Worked like a charm," Casey said. "Edwin got it on tape. You'll love the look on Derek's face."

"Can't wait," Emily said.

"He's asleep right now," Casey said. "So I felt safe enough to ask you what you thought."

"About what?" Emily asked. Casey kept leaving out vital information.

"I was getting to that," Casey said. "He brought back gifts for everybody. Even me."

"You sound so surprised," Emily said.

"Yeah?" Casey said. "He did it in his usual Derek-y way, being all '_nice?_ I'm not _nice_!' and running off before I could hug him..."

Sounded like business as usual to Emily. "What'd he get you?"

"A really nice diary," Casey said. "But then I opened it and found a little envelope inside, taped to the back."

Emily's eyes widened as she imagined the possibilities.

"And?"

"And I opened it," Casey said. "And there was a silver necklace inside."

"No way," Emily said.

"With a little flamenco dancer pendant," Casey said.

"That is so sweet!" Emily said.

"Yeah," Casey said. "It is. It's really beautiful, too. You gotta see it. But, see, the thing is, now I don't know how to react."

"Well, some people write thank you notes," Emily teased.

"Em, don't," Casey said. "This is important. I mean, he just doesn't do stuff like this."

"Nope," Emily said.

"And this didn't come out of a gumball machine either," Casey said. "It looks handmade. Maybe it got mixed up with the book and it's not meant for me."

"You just said it was taped to the book," Emily said. Though she really should have known better than to try to use logic when Casey was trying to delude herself. And anyway, there was no one else it could be for. Sally was out of the picture, had been for a little while. That whole situation with the two of them had been a little nasty, and, based on what she'd heard from Casey, the breakup and Derek's resulting zombiehood had been part of the reason the trip to Spain had been thrown together.

"Oh yeah," Casey said.

"Why don't you just ask him?"

"_Ask_ him?" Casey said. You'd think Emily just suggested she dunk her head in boiling oil. "I can't do that! That's not the way our relationship works. We don't _talk_ like normal people do."

"You can say that again," Emily said.

"We trade insults," Casey said. "We give gag gifts. When I saw the diary, I expected him to say something about how he noticed that the old one was almost full last time he read it."

Emily laughed. That sounded like something he'd say.

"But then he didn't say _any_thing," Casey said. "He took off for his room."

"And what about this don't you understand?" Emily asked.

"_Why?_" Casey asked. "Why would he do this?"

"He _missed_ you," Emily said. "You didn't think he would?"

Here Emily was censoring herself a little. Derek and Casey's complicated relationship was something that was there, and obvious to everyone, but it was something that you just didn't talk about. If Emily decided to come right out and say that it looked like Derek might finally be making a significant gesture, it might blow Casey's mind. She just wasn't ready for the truth yet.

"I didn't expect him to _act_ like he missed me," Casey said. "I mean, the first thing he did when he came home was swing Marti around. The second thing he did was insult me. That was what I expected. This? I didn't see coming. So what do I do? Do I just put it on? What I _wanna_ do is go wake him up and ask him the meaning of this."

"_Don't_ do that," Emily said. _Unless you do it wearing only the necklace,_ she thought to herself. _Oh God. _She imagined Casey's reaction if she'd suggested that for real. Not pretty.

"I wish he'd just wake up already," Casey said.

"How long's he been asleep?" Emily asked.

"About forty-five minutes," Casey said. "Maybe an hour."

Emily laughed. She couldn't budge him if she tried.

"I'll give him another hour," Casey said. Emily laughed harder. "Can you come over, Em? Watch a movie with me?"

"Um," Emily said, thinking fast. "I gotta brush my cat."

"Em!"

"You'll be okay," Emily said. "Call me later. _After_ you talk to him."

Part Five: Nora.

The general idea was to enjoy the silence while it lasted, because it wouldn't last much longer. This was a different type of quiet than they'd had over the last three weeks—that silence had been an absence, not a cataclysmic one, but still. And it had snuck up on them. After the second week, everyone had started to go a little stir crazy. Take any one kid out of the mix and things turned weird. Nora knew that in about a year, they'd lose not one but two kids, and she dreaded that. This was sort of an uncomfortable test run.

Nora'd never been so happy to drive to the airport. There was going to be a lot of that in the years to come. When she said as much to George he'd chuckled and decided to mess with her.

"Wanna have another one?" he asked.

"What?" Nora asked. "Are you _kidding_?"

"Of course I'm kidding," George said. "I had a vasectomy, remember?"

"Yeah, thank God," she said, remembering the one scare that they'd had, six months before.

"How bout a kitten?" George asked.

"He looks much better," Nora said, changing the subject.

"Sending him on this trip was a great idea," George said.

"If you do say so yourself," Nora teased.

"I do have brilliant ideas," George said.

"You are the idea man," Nora said.

"I have a couple more brilliant ideas I wanna run by you," George said, starting to nuzzle her ear.

"Run em by me," Nora said.

"Well," he said, running a hand up her back and stopping to kiss her neck. "The first one (kiss) is that we should (kiss) order a couple of pizzas tonight."

She whacked him on the back of the head, laughing.

"What's the second one, that we should regrout the tile in our bathroom this weekend?" Nora asked.

"Nope," George said, going for her neck again.

So it was a couple of hours before she went upstairs to check on the kids.

Lizzie was trouncing Edwin at _Guitar Hero_ as Marti watched, declaring that she wanted to play the winner. Derek was blotto, spread out on his stomach diagonally across his still made bed. It looked like he'd made an attempt to get into a magazine which currently rested under his cheek. She went over to his bed to gently slide the magazine out before it stuck to his face, and left part of an article tattooed to him. It resisted her a little, but she got it out from under him eventually and an article on Coldspray caught her attention. Deciding that she'd probably work her way through the whole thing before Derek even woke up, she tucked it under her arm.

She bit her lip, trying not to laugh. He was such a heavy sleeper. One could dress him in costume, prop him up and take several incriminating pictures before he even shifted position. Marti knew this. Derek had come down to dinner more than once wearing some sort of glittery cosmetic and not realizing it until people laughed.

And yet he still didn't lock his door.

She watched him for another minute or so before she went to see what Casey was up to.

"Whatcha doin?" Nora sing-songed.

Casey was also lying on her stomach, doodling. In an old notebook. They bought her sketchpads, but she just couldn't bring herself to actually, you know, _use_ them. She was drawing a flower. Its petals were diamond-shaped, making the whole thing look more like a flower from a stained glass window.

"That's pretty," Nora said, sitting next to her.

"Thanks," Casey said. "Got a little lopsided over here." She pointed.

"No big," Nora said. "When I doodle, I do that 'Kilroy was Here' guy, with the big nose. You do Van Gogh meets Tiffany."

"Edwin's better at it," Casey said. "And Derek—"

"Derek's not much of a flower guy," Nora said. Derek drew boy stuff. Dragons, big-breasted dragon wranglers, sexy vampires. Some of them bore suspicious resemblances to people she knew. Especially the ones that looked like one perky, anti-dragon slayer she knew who was currently moping on her bed for reasons entirely unknown.

Best not to beat around the bush. "What's the matter?" Nora asked.

"Nothing," Casey said.

"Casey," Nora said, knowing that usually when Casey said "nothing" she meant "ask me again."

"Nothing's going on," Casey said. "That's sorta the problem. I'm a little bored, but I get paid in a couple days, so I think Em and I will do something this weekend."

_Riiiight_, Nora thought. Casey _wanted_ to tell her something, but for some reason, wasn't doing it. She always told her everything. Sometimes, it was more than Nora wanted to know. Casey usually wasn't very good at hiding things. Nora was the parent of teenagers; secrecy set alarm bells off in her head. While it was true that she didn't need to know absolutely everything, she always appreciated Casey's willingness to talk to her. As such, she wanted answers. Now. But she knew that she really wasn't going to get them if she nagged her.

"Okay," Nora said finally, and totally against her every instinct. "But you know that if there ever is something going on..."

"I know where to find you," Casey said, smiling.

"Good," Nora said. She leaned over and kissed the top of Casey's head before she got up to leave.

"So, in the meantime," Nora said. "We're gonna order some pizza. I'm pretty sure that I'm not going to get a coherent answer from Rip Van Winkle in there, but what do you think, one meatball and pepperoni and one veggie? Sound fair?"

"Sounds good," Casey said. "And don't forget the cannoli."

Nora laughed. That was a George-ism, using any and all opportunities to quote _The Godfather_. It worked its way into everyone's speech until even Marti sometimes called Edwin "Fredo" kissing him on both cheeks. The only difference was that Marti didn't have the foggiest idea what any of it meant, which made it funnier. Marti had seen Derek try to do it once, Edwin wiggling out of his grasp at the last second.

"I won't," Nora said at the door. She decided that she'd bring this whole secrecy thing up with George later and he'd probably tell her she was overreacting and that they'd just try to keep their eyes open, like always. The kids seemed to think that they were blind, but they picked up on way more than they'd ever know.

Part Six: Casey.

The pizza came, and it fell to Casey to try to revive Derek. She pretended to be put out by this so that she didn't seem too eager.

She went into his room, flicked on a lamp and tried to figure out how she was going to do this. It wasn't going to be easy. She's had to wake him up before, and until this moment, it wasn't something she jumped at the chance to do.

She gave him a tentative nudge. "Hey," she said.

Nothing.

"Hey," she tried again. "Derek, come on."

He said something that sounded like "Grdzcegm" and rolled over.

"There's pizza," Casey said.

"Mmmm?"

"Pizza," Casey said. "Meatball and pepperoni I think. You don't want Edwin to eat it all, do you?"

He managed to pop one eye open to look up at her. She laughed at him as he rubbed his eyes and tried to focus on her. She had the necklace on and her heart raced as she saw him notice, and take hold of the little charm.

"I was worried that it was too long," Derek said.

_What? _Casey's mind screamed. _That's all you have to say?I just sat here all day wondering what the hell is going on here and you say you were worried that the chain was too long?!_

"It's perfect," she said. "What made you think of it?"

"Mom has a friend who makes jewelry," he said. "She was showing Mom stuff, and she had this."

She waited for him to elaborate. When he didn't, she said "And?"

"Hey, if you don't want it..."

"Hands off my necklace," Casey said, putting a protective hand over it. He smiled.

"Thought so," he said.

"But why?" Casey said.

"Saw it," he said. "Thought of you."

"Why?" she asked again, mentally kicking herself for being a pain in the ass at the wrong moment.

"Because I...um...okay, I missed you," he said. He broke eye contact, embarrassed. Earnestness didn't come naturally to him. It seemed like whenever he was forced to say what was on his mind, it derailed him.

"I missed you too," she said. "A lot. But I'm still glad you went."

"Yeah, 'cause I don't think they sell these at the mall," he said, fingering the necklace again.

"I mean that you needed to get away," Casey asked. "You know what you were like around the time school ended." She let that hang in the air, not wanting to go into detail on the Sally dumping him for Patrick situation. She for one, never wanted to see that look of devastation on his face ever again.

"Yeah," Derek said.

"I mean, you had a good time, right?" she asked.

"Yeah," he said. "It was amazing."

"¿Muy chicas calientes?" Casey asked.

"Yo prefiero las niñas de Canadá," he said.

"¿De verdad?"

"Si," he said. "Me gustan las...um...keeners."

Words failed her. In every language.

"Is any of this getting through to you?" Derek asked.

"You had better mean it," Casey said. She felt a little short of breath and scanned the room for a paper bag she could use if she needed it.

He looked away again and nodded. It was pretty good confirmation.

"So I was walking around, right? Sightseeing and taking pictures and stuff. Eating. And I kept thinking 'Casey would really like this,' or imagining your face if they plopped a plate of clams in front of you, and then eating stuff like snails—I kid you not, _snails_—and imagining you covering your eyes with your hands the way you do at horror movies. Thousands of miles away, right? And it was like you were right there yelling at me and correcting my pronunciation," he said.

"I planned that stupid thing with the slipcover two and a half weeks ago," Casey said. "I agonized about what I could do to you, because I couldn't just come right out and say that I missed you; I had to prank you instead. And if I didn't try to pull anything, I was afraid you'd feel unloved."

"And I would've," Derek said. There was a painfully awkward pause that he broke by saying "It was a good one, though."

"So what do we do now?" Casey asked.

"We wrestle the pizza away from Ed," Derek said, cracking a smile.

"After that?"

"Did we get cannoli?"

"De-_rek_!"

"I don't know!" Derek said. "You're supposed to be the smart one!"

"Oh, so you think flattering me will get me to do all the dirty work?" Casey asked.

"Well?"

"No," Casey said.

"Damn! I guess I'll just have to join you on the dark side for a minute and _plan_," Derek said. "But we need to eat first."

"Sounds fair," Casey said.

Part Seven: George.

"Should we check on them?" Nora asked.

"Nah," George joked. "More pizza for us."

She gave him her patented "You're an idiot" look.

"He's giving her a hard time, is all," George said. The rest of the kids didn't look worried, but then it was hard to tell anything accurately in such close proximity to pizza.

He heard a "De-_rek_!" from upstairs. He realized that he'd missed that.

"See? Business as usual," George said.

They came down shortly after that, both seeming a little nervous.

"What's that necklace?" Marti asked almost immediately, causing George to look up and see a new pendant around Casey's neck. He squinted at it for a second and recognized what it was. A flamenco dancer.

It didn't take a rocket scientist to figure out where it came from.

George turned to Nora to see her reaction. She blinked twice and went back to pouring bleu cheese on her antipasto.

_I think I owe her another loony_, he thought.

FIN.

A/N 2: Here's the prompt: Casey is surprised by the gift Derek brings her back from Spain (where he spent 3 weeks on vacation with his mom). She thinks that perhaps her relationship with Derek isn't as simple as she always assumed it was.

Hope I did it justice. :)


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